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Pinkus Abortion Technician

1. Stop Moving To Florida
2. Embrace The Rub
3. Don’t Forget To Breathe
4. Flamboyant Duck
5. Break Bread
6. I Want To Hold Your Hand
7. Prenup Butter
8. Graveyard

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A good number of musical history’s experiments have the Melvins’ name stamped on them and the latest entry into the irreverent legends’ extensive discography has them employing two bassists: Jeff Pinkus and Steven McDonald. Despite this, Pinkus Abortion Technician – a take on the classic Locust Abortion Technician album by Pinkus’s other band, Butthole Surfers – won’t blow out speakers or bowels; it’s surprisingly quirky and light-hearted. The I Wanna Hold Your Hand cover is thick, but not oppressive, Flamboyant Duck mostly twangs acoustically and tar-paced rocker Prenup Butter uses a wah pedal in a way Cliff Burton fans will appreciate. It’s really only the scuzzy blues of Don’t Forget To Breathe and Break Bread’s stadium-sized rock where bass-driven thunder is felt and, as with most Melvins releases, highlights and lowlights are based on whether listeners prefer to rock out or let outsider-art waves wash over them.

Luke Morton joined Metal Hammer as Online Editor in 2014, having previously worked as News Editor at popular (but now sadly defunct) alternative lifestyle magazine, Front. As well as helming the Metal Hammer website for the four years that followed, Luke also helped relaunch the Metal Hammer podcast in early 2018, producing, scripting and presenting the relaunched show during its early days. He also wrote regular features for the magazine, including a 2018 cover feature for his very favourite band in the world, Slipknot, discussing their turbulent 2008 album, All Hope Is Gone.